Reroutes for the 232 and 239 start Monday, November 22

Starting on Monday November 22, 2010 and continuing until February 2011, the City of North Vancouver will be undertaking construction work on the Cotton Road Bridge. The number of traffic lanes will be reduced while this work is ongoing, and as a result, it is expected that traffic levels will be higher with increased congestion. To keep our buses on a reliable schedule, we have decided to re-route the #232 and #239 away from this area.

This means that stops on Main Street, Cotton Road and Brooksbank Avenue will be cancelled for the duration of the works, and passengers are advised to walk to either Keith or Oxford to catch their buses. Please do call our customer information line if you have any questions: 604.953.3333.

What’s up with the queue jumper lane near Lions Gate?

I’ve received a couple of questions about this, so I wanted to share the information with you!

At the start of November, the Lions Gate Bridge queue jumper lane was closed due to the construction of a new HOV lane into West Vancouver. The work is slated to continue until the end of March 2011. But on the bright side, the buses will be using the HOV lane and service will likely be zippy come March 2011!

The closure of the lane means that sadly, 240, 241, 242, 246, 247 and N24 can no longer use this special lane to skip past traffic. As well, this means the stop on the on-ramp to Lions Gate Bridge has been cancelled for the duration of the works. The last stop before the bridge for passengers on weekdays between 7 am and 9:30 am is stop 54434 northbound on Marine and McGuire, and at all other times is stop 54440 westbound on Marine and McGuire.

This is posted in our Alerts section but I just want to amplify its reach in case you were looking for the answer. Again, please do call our customer information line if you have any questions: 604.953.3333!

9 Comments

Thanks for that info. What some riders may not know is the 290 Deep Cove leaving Burrard Station starts as a 240 (or at least, for the 6:07 departure it does). I found out from another driver why the 290 was so late. This particularly impacts people who rely on its Mt Seymour Parkway route which is served only once an hour after 6 pm. For the next 4 months, does Translink have any plans to mitigate this impact? It takes me nearly an hour and a half to get home (10 – 15 minutes longer than normal) when I have to wait for the following bus, which is not an express. Thanks.

Great info! But noticed that the picture you included of the #240 is quite OLD! First because there is no bike rack on the front? And second, because all of those high-floor style Flyers (the #3100’s & 3200’s) were RETIRED shortly after the Olympics came to an end… Training might still have one or two…

I noticed while on the SkyTrain on my to Main Street, I spotted what looks like an old D40 painted old BC Transit colors parked alongside coach buses not far from Pacific Central. Could that a private charter bus or a training one?

@ Sean (CMBC): Haha, I noticed that too — I looked at the photo twice because I thought the font of the destination sign on the bus looked a little odd. The thing that tipped me off to the age of the photo was the faded rusty ol green paint on the Lions Gate Bridge. Then I noticed the old-style deck structure, which was relocated to below road level when they replaced the deck in 2000.

Oh, you eagle eyes. I just pulled that image out of our photo library after searching for “Lions Gate Bridge” and didn’t realize the vehicle was retired! I’ll leave our marketing team a note for the future :)

Erika: I passed your question on to CMBC planning and here is what they’ve shared.

For Erika’s question, this is not an easy situation to solve. As a bit of background to start with, all the routes at North Vancouver are interlined (they switch routes partway through their route). This is due to the fact North Vancouver has the smallest depot in the system and it is currently at capacity. As Erika has noted her 290 starts out as a 240. There is hardly any buses that stay on the same route for the entire shift which could mitigate this impact. Given the depot is at capacity our spare vehicle availability is limited in what we can do.

The situation at Lions Gate is not helped by the Cotton Bridge works, which will also have knock-on effects for the schedule. Somehow it has happened that everyone is digging up the North Shore all at once!

My colleagues in Service Delivery have arranged with the construction crew at Lions Gate to allow an ‘ad-hoc’ queue jump controlled by the flag people to try and get the buses through a bit quicker. This is during the peak periods, Monday to Friday. Hopefully this will be having some positive impact.

Given the lack of vehicles and resources to pay for it, our hands are tied at the minute. All I can ask is that people be patient.